NBC’s ‘The Blacklist’ Gets January Original Run

After taking a lot of flak over the four-month break it imposed on freshman Revolution last season, which seemed to hurt the serialized drama, NBC vowed not to repeat the mistake with its new hotshot in the Monday 10 PM slot, The Blacklist — especially given that series’ more procedural nature. There had been talk of an extra batch of Blacklist originals airing between the fall and spring runs behind The Voice. NBC has now scheduled those for January. Following a Blacklist marathon of back-to-back repeats from 8-11 PM on January 6, three originals of the James Spader-starring drama will air on January 13, 20 and 27 behind a two-hour American Ninja Warrior special and fresh episodes of Hollywood Game Night. NBC will broadcast a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit special on February 3 before heading into two weeks of Olympics coverage. The network has not announced its Monday post-Olympics plans yet but, given the amount of promotion it is expected to give both The Voice and Blacklist, it makes sense for them to return right after — on February 24. That also would give support to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon which will have launched the previous Monday, February 17. The Voice‘s spring cycle premiere has varied widely, from March 25 last year to February 6 (after the Super Bowl) in 2012. The Blacklist‘s fall finale airs tonight. The two-part closer was pushed by a week after a Spader illness delayed production last month.